The only residents of Volubilis now are the storks, nesting on ruined columns, and they leave in the summer. But two thousand years ago, this hillside city in north Morocco was an important outpost of the Roman Empire, home to rich patricians. Volubilis, with 20,000 people, was an administrative city that produced grain and olive oil. Even after the Romans left, in the 3rd century C.E., it was occupied for another 1,000 years. But over time, earthquakes and Berber attacks took their toll, and in the 18th century, the sultan Moulay Ismail had hundreds of stones carted away for his immense buildings in Meknes.Volubilis was finally abandoned.